Author Serge Payette was quoted by Reuters as describing the warming as "the end of the line for permafrost." He added that though the trend cannot be conclusively linked to climate change owing to a lack of data in the remote region, global warming is the most likely cause of the retreat.

Stored Methane Emissions IncreasingThough the permafrost in the area around James Bay stores less methane than land farther north and in Siberia, the amount of methane being released into the atmosphere from the Arctic has increased over between 2003-2007. Remember that though it is more shortly lived in the atmosphere than CO2, methane is a more potent greenhouse gas. The fear is that a tipping point will be reached and vast stores of methane will be released in a relatively short time period as the permafrost melting trend continues.